As a part of developmental psychology, developmental trajectory relates to the path or progression of the ability development, such as the theory of mind, with aging. The numerous studies on the theory of mind (ToM) state that the skills of mindreading follow the developmental trajectory. This implies the gradual emergence of mindreading abilities that become more and more developed and refined to the point when they attain the level of adult mindreading skills. From quite a young age, children start developing an increasingly sophisticated understanding of concepts of the mental state, including “beliefs, desires, intentions, and so on.” Furthermore, there are grounds considering the possibility of the cultural and social factors’ influence on the age and, therefore, understanding of various aspects referring to the theory of mind, such as understanding knowledge, false belief, or desire.
The key aspects of ToM may slightly vary due to such impact on the cultural and social origin of a child. Besides, the same pattern related to the consistency of the development of these abilities was noticed to remain relatively constant in different cultures. Children might enhance their ToM through the process of hypothesis testing. Hewson defines the idea that emphasizes human mindreading skills and their advancement in childhood as the “acquisition of a theory about the mind.” However, there are arguments concerning this position, such as the idea proposed by Gopnik that a child’s development of ToM is identical to the scientist’s developmental approach to the formal theory based on the hypothesis.